Angular 5 testing: how to get a reference to the child component

Question

I\'m trying to test the interaction between a host component and a child component in an Angular application. I don\'t know how to get a reference to the child component c

Answer 1

Iterate through the childNodes of the debugElement(s) and access the context property to get access to the component ant its properties

let debugElement = hostFixture.debugElement.childNodes[x] as DebugElement
debugElement = debugElement.childNodes[x] as DebugElement
...
let component = debugElement.context as YourComponent

This is a very static approach because if a new child is added then maybe you access the wrong childNode. It is better to write a helper method which traverse through the childNodes and find the right name.